Madlib,

aka Quasimoto, aka Madlib

An Independent Study into the Creation of Alternative Personalities and
Narratives Through Sampling: A Case Study in Madlibs Quasimoto.













Raouf B. Grissa
Fall, 2013
Advisor: Tracy McMullen

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Identity: Past, Present, Future

I had it up to here with the black on black

- Quasimoto Real Eyes (2000)

The creation of alternative identities within the hip-hop genre has presently
led to a plethora of diverse and complex characters, villains, and legends that use
musical and cultural borrowing, or sampling, to create narratives about those
personalities. The importance of creating an identity within hip-hop cannot be
understated; it allows the artist to separate itself from the social, cultural, and
political facades to which they are subjugated and enter a new aesthetic framework
of creation where they are limited only by their own imagination and the resources
at their disposal. Hip-hops prolific creation of identity is, as hip-hop scholar Tricia
Rose writes, a form of reinvention and self-definition (Rose, 193). However, this
diverse and rich flexibility between identities in hip-hop does not characterize the
genres entire history.
Although hip-hops origins in the 1980s and early 1990s contained a
similarly diverse range in styles, the mid-to-late 1990s saw the genre become
increasingly commoditized to the point where there was an expectation to perform
under the guise of a manufactured persona of black male identity. This static
identity led to the proliferation of the gangsta, a character who had lots of money,
girls, material possessions and a desire for violence, sex, and drugs. The prolific hip-
hop producer, DJ, and rapper Madlib, born Otis Jackson Jr., was able to challenge this
proliferated static character through the creation of the alter ego Quasimoto, a
high-pitched, no holds barred alien being whose voice sounds like he inhaled helium.

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The ensuing paper will go about deciphering the identity found in Madlibs
Quasimoto, while bearing in mind that there are always multiple readings to be
gleaned from a hip-hop listen.
Madlib is able to transgress and subsequently challenge the manufactured
character of black male identity inherent in hip-hop at the turn of the millennium
through the creation of Quasimoto, The Unseen. This argument will be presented
in three parts: the fist looks at how Madlib presents an identity that foregrounds the
marginal through sounds and imagery to bring the listener into the ethereal
world of Quasimoto, the Unseen character. The second argues that Madlib is able
to confront the static subjectivity intrinsic within characteristic tropes of mid-to-late
1990s hip-hop through the presence of multiple identities and dialogues within the
new Bad Character soundscape. Finally, Madlibs reappropriation of cultural
modes of thought and evasion of the static allow him to create an alternative space
of dynamic creation that allows Quasimoto, and thus Madlib, to collapse the linear
progression of time.

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The Unseen

Visualize the soundscape
- DJ Spooky (2004)

Madlib presents an identity that foregrounds the marginal through sounds
and imagery to bring the listener into the ethereal world of Quasimoto, the Unseen
character. Madlibs Quasimoto combines the fragmented use of multiple samples
and sounds within a cut-and-paste aesthetic framework that help to foreground
marginalized sound. His approach to sampling and music creation epitomizes the
mood of his music and his identity at large, which brings the informed listener into
Quasimotos soundscape. The often-ignored crackle sound inherent to vinyl
records is a sound foregrounded in almost all of his songs (see: Come On Feet (2000),
Return Of The Loop Digga (2000), Astronaut (2002), Bad Character (2000), and
Shadows of Tomorrow (2004), among others). The foregrounding of marginal sound
not only applies to the crackle of the vinyl, but to Quasimotos broader aesthetic
framework. Often, the original sample is lifted straight from its vinyl recording and
only appears for a few bars before disappearing all together. A samples single use
creates a location-based sound that is exemplified within the larger soundscape.
Two songs that best exemplify this sampling aesthetic are Astronaut and Return Of
The Loop Digga.
Astronaut (2002) opens with a cut-and-paste snippet from Gianni Ferrios La
Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte (1973), the theme song of the movie by the same
name. As the brass and piano reach a crescendo (0:14) the sample fades out and

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does not reappear for the duration of the song. The song transitions into a chopped-
up version of John Dankworths Return From The Ashes Theme (1965) over a drum
beat. Although this sample is played out for the majority of the song, at (0:56) the
beat temporarily breaks down and another cut-paste sample is introduced, that of
Melvin Van Peebles You Aint No Astronaut (1974). While the aforementioned
sample is vocal, it is nevertheless reappropriated and echoed throughout the song,
through the scratching of the original record (characteristic to hip-hop), and
through both Madlib and Quasimotos repetition of prominent lines found within the
Melvin Van Peebles song, such as:

You aint no astronaut - but we been out there in orbit,

And walk further than the moon, aint we? Aint we?


-Melvin Van Peebles - You Aint No Astronaut (1974)
& Quasimoto - Astronaut (2002)
For the sake of remaining focused on an investigation on the aesthetic

qualities of Quasimotos sound and image, what this straight reappropriation

implies within the context of the Quasimoto identity will be expanded upon in a
later argument. Another example of the mood that Quasimoto creates through his
cut-and-paste sampling aesthetic is found in Return Of The Loop Digga, off of
Quasimotos 2000 debut, The Unseen. Loop Digga can best be described as a
sample infused collage of shifting musical elements. It contains more than 10
individually sampled songs that are often played out for only four to eight bars
before a new sample, a new sound, is introduced and the old is cut out. The song
opens with an unknown horn sample, which is faded out after four bars into
recapitulations of Yo its the Loop Digga, man its the Loop Digga, my nigga

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repeatedly alternated by Madlib and Quasimoto over cut-up drum and keyboard-
bass samples from Oneness of Juju (1975) and Fragments of Fear (1971),
respectively.
The first verse - by Madlib echoes the artists aesthetic frame: he describes
his eclectic sampling style and how he strives to create some way out other shit, a
sound that is not sampling the same ass shit or looping upplayed out hits.
Things take a turn for the bizarre between 1:08 and 2:02: the listener is thrown into
a soundscape of constantly changing samples and sounds. Seven samples are played
in succession within the span of 45 seconds (for a complete list of samples, see
Appendix A). These constant, rapid, cut-and-paste shifts in marginally spaced tones,
rhythmic structures, and instruments work to immerse the listener in the sonic
framework that emphasizes the foregrounding of the fringe. The rapid shifts in
samples accompanies an overlaid dialogue between Madlib and a record store
owner (this is a slightly pitch-adjusted Madlib that is not Quasimoto) concerning
the availability of jazz records and artists such as Simon Cowells Strata East
recordings from 1974, Chick Coreas Inner Space (1968) off of Atlantic recordings,
and Grant Greens Blue Note recordings from 1958. This continuous layering of
multiple sounds creates another dialogue, one between sampled sounds and spoken
words that, together work to deconstruct the identity of the personality. In
Quasimotos case, this combined dialogue simultaneously showcases Madlibs
extensive musical knowledge while, more abstractly; it further immerses the
listener into Quasimotos soundscape by bringing them into the action of the
situation - record digging - through imagery and sounds. The multiple dialogues

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and personas that Quasimotos music contains is a departure from the centralized,
unitary masculine form of African-American males in hip-hop that dominated
mainstream radio at the turn of the century. Madlibs departure from dominant
forms of hip-hop through dialogue and multiple personas will be the focus of
discussion in a later section in order to not lose focus of the argument at present, the
foregrounding of the marginal.
The cut-and-paste sampling technique is not a fault or random coincidence, it
acts as a conscious element of Quasimotos unseen identity. In both Astronaut and
Return Of The Loop Digga, the samples limited use creates a singular, location based
sound that resounds within the listener. A samples singular use (especially a well
timed sample) will be foregrounded within the larger sound structure of the song
and subsequently be more noticeable to the listener. The fragmented sample almost
teases the listener, where the introduction of a sample may come just as quickly as
its departure. Joanna Demers (2002) echoes this sentiment, rather than developing
gradually from the texture, samples can occur only once during the course of the
song. Often a mere guitar riff or drum break is the only clue that a particular song is
being borrowed (Demers, 67). Madlibs cut-and-paste sampling aesthetic works to
bring those isolated samples into the foreground. This cutting and pasting of
layered samples adds an additional textural element to Quasimotos already hazy
soundscape. The musical aesthetics elaborated on above work to foreground
previously marginalized sounds. The musical framework that defines Quasimoto -
in combination with the soon to be discussed imagery tinged with themes of science

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fiction and cartoons - help to tease apart the origins of the Quasimoto personality,
and works to further accentuate his foregrounding of the marginal.
The discussion now shifts focus from a purely sonic aesthetic framework to
one that combines Madlibs use of science fiction and cartoon imagery (within the
context of the Quasimoto personality) to further foreground marginal space. The
visual character of Quasimoto is loosely based on characters in La Plante Sauvage
(1973), an animated French-Czech stop motion science fiction film. Much of the
soundtrack of the film, composed by French jazz pianist Alain Goraguer, influences
the atmosphere and sound (soundscape) inherent in Quasimotos music, as is the
case with Come On Feet off of his debut, The Unseen.
The film takes place in a surreal future where humans known as Oms live
on an alien planet inhabited by Traags, alien beings hundreds of times larger than
the Oms. While some Oms are domesticated as pets (as is the main protagonist of
the film, an Om named Tiva), others are viewed as pests and are exterminated in
events known as de-oms. The Traags combine poisonous gas in their de-oms with
leashed Oms - who wear red gas masks with protruding snouts - used to seek out
wild Oms (see Appendix C). It is these masked Oms that are the origins and early
depictions of the visual character of Quasimoto.
Although the visual character of Quasimoto has evolved since his early
depictions (see Appendix C), Quasimotos reappropriation of the masked Om
reflects Madlibs adoption of the science fiction narrative. Science fiction, as DJ
Spooky justly points out, is the literature of alienation, a genre for those who dont
relate to the world as it currently stands, for those who want to create alternative

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zones of expression (Miller, 2004). The science fiction narrative allows the
creation of a place where things do not have to be the same. It is a recurring motif in
the music of afrofuturist artists - such as Sun Ra, Lee Scratch Perry, Kool Keith, and
as will later be argued, Quasimoto - as it is an apt metaphor for black life and
history (Rollefson, 83). Quasimotos use of the science fiction narrative can thus be
seen as a reflection and understanding of himself as already having been a robot, a
product of a manufactured black past. His subsequent adoption of Quasimoto as an
alien character can be seen as:

a response to an existing condition: namely, that [blacks] were a labor for
capitalism, that they had very little value as people in society. By taking on
the robotic stance, one is playing with the robot. Its like wearing body
armor that identifies you as an alien: if its always on anyway, in some
symbolic sense [one] could master the wearing of this guise in order to use
it against [ones] interpolation.
(Dery, 1994)



The use of interpolation here implies an abrupt shift in musical elements (e.g.

harmony, tone, and melody) from the main theme, a brief corruption of the
medium through the insertion of new matter. Although Quasimotos musical
aesthetic does just this to emphasize marginal space, these musical shifts are a
reflection of Madlibs broader aesthetic framework; creating an immersive
atmosphere that mirrors his unseen character. As the samples come-and-go, so
too does Quasimoto himself. Madlibs larger response to the interpellation of black
males in the 1990s is echoed through his aesthetic frame. By playing with the
robot, Madlib, through Quasimoto, is able to use his identity as an unseen alien
being to confront the expected perception of black males in the 1990s. Simply by

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being known as the Unseen, Quasimoto further foregrounds the marginal by
directly challenging the hypervisibility prevalent in centralized black masculine
forms in hip-hop at the turn of the millennium.
Quasimoto, the Unseen, is always hidden. His recording label, Stones
Throw, has written that Quasimoto has never been seen in the same room with
anyone (Stones Throw, 2013). Quasimotos identity as an outside character
seems to parallel that of Quasimodo, the famed protagonist in Victor Hugos The
Hunchback of Notre-Dame. While the two are both marginalized unseen
characters, a key difference between the two lies in the conditions of their
marginalization. Quasimodo is shunned from the outside due to his grotesque
appearance and the constant ridicule that came from it. These conditions forced
Quasimodos identity to be tied to an immovable environment, whereby the identity
of the subject remains static. Quasimoto, meanwhile, has the choice and freedom to
be seen but actively acts on the contrary in order to evade the static subjectivity that
would arise from being tied down to one perception of identity. Through the
adoption of the science fiction narrative and taking the robotic stance, Madlib is
able to foreground the alienated unseen character of Quasimoto. The alternative
spaces of expression created through this adoption allows Madlib to create an
ethereal, immersive world where Quasimoto a.k.a. the Unseen is the driver and the
listener is along for the ride.

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The New Bad Character

My-story is different from his-story
- Sun Ra (1980)

Madlib is able to confront the static subjectivity intrinsic within characteristic
tropes of mid-to-late 1990s hip-hop through the presence of multiple identities and
dialogues within the new Bad Character soundscape. Before delving into a full
discussion on how Madlib is able to confront characteristic tropes of 1990s hip-hop
through the Quasimoto identity, it is important to set the stage and understand what
those characteristic tropes were and how the creation of a hypersimplified hip-hop
male character allowed for the experimentation of masculine forms and the
emergence of the Quasimoto identity within a broader social and cultural frame.
The end of the 1980s and onset of the 1990s saw the emergence of hip-hop
as a cultural and social phenomenon that was capable of attaining mainstream
success. The diversity and variability of styles within the broad hip-hop genre at the
time was immense. There were styles of rap-gangsta that were equally played
alongside party, political, afrocentric, and avant-garde styles, each with multiple
substyles of their own. As the 1990s progressed, the growth in corporate-promoted
mainstream hip-hop began to dilute the plethora of diverse styles that had emerged
at the turn of the decade. The social, artistic, and political significance of figures
like the gangsta and street hustler substantially devolved into apolitical, simple-
minded, almost comic stereotypes (Rose, 2). These stereotypes, or tropes,
centralized black cultural practice and constrained the identity of black males in

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society to a predetermined social framework of identity that remained static. The
most well known tropes in hip-hop - dubbed the trinity of commercial hip-hop' by
Tricia Rose - include the black gangsta, pimp, and ho. These tropes have been
corporately promoted and socially accepted to the point where they dominate the
genres storytelling worldview (Rose, 4). The promotion and acceptance of these
tropes in the 1990s created a uniform, hypersimplified character of black male
identity that was constrained to using minimal lyrics, having oodles of material
possessions, and having a lust for violence, sex, and drugs (see artists such as 50
cent and Lil Jon, and more recently artists like 2 Chainz and Soulja Boy).
This static gangsta character can be seen as the 1990s equivalent to the
1970s pimp depicted within blaxploitation films such as Shaft (1971), Sweet
Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song (1971), Superfly (1972), and Cotton Comes to Harlem
(1970), among others. These films portray a black man who uses his style, sex
appeal, and brute force to negotiate a hostile world beset by racism and random
violence (Demers, 42). The films often contain caricatured representations of
blacks and whites within an artistic frame centered on sex, drugs, and crime. The
Blaxploitation genre was also noted for the funk and soul music included on the
films soundtracks, a characteristic that is contributed to Melvin Van Peebles Sweet
Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song, a film (and artist) sampled extensively in Quasimotos
music (see Appendix A for a full list) (Demers, 44). There are three elements that
explain the genres allure within contemporary hip-hop music: its use of theme
songs or anthems, its overt politicization, and its fascination with the ghetto or
hood (Demers, 48). Musical and vocal samples often evoke images of the

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characters and themes of the films themselves, which helps retain connotation with
the film outside its actual viewing. Within the context of the Quasimoto identity,
Come On Feet best captures this reappropriation through the thematic sampling of
La Plante Sauvage and Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song.
Come On Feet opens brazenly with a vocal sample of Earth Wind &
Fire/Melvin Van Peebles Come On Feet Do Your Thing (1971) over a sample from La
Plante Sauvage and a Little Feat drum break. Within Sweet Sweetback, Come On
Feet Do Your Thing plays at a critical point when Sweetback is on the run from the
police. As the film cuts between Sweetbacks flight and surreal effects, the viewers
perception of the song becomes connected to his flight. Thus, the overlay of this
song within the context of the movie consequently turns the song itself into a
symbol of flight and resistance from the man, and is reapplied as such to
Quasimotos flight from the police in Come On Feet. This same mode of thought can
be applied to Madlibs use of the Plante Sauvage sample. The sound chemical pills
being shot out of a machine plays at a similarly critical point within the movie,
when the alien Traags are exterminating the Oms in a de-om event. The sound here
is attributed to the plight of the Oms as they try to escape from the poison. This
sample within the context of Quasimotos Come On Feet is similarly used, akin to that
of running footsteps and subsequently the plight of Quasimoto as he tries to escape
trouble. The ability for thematic samples to be recontextualized within a familiar,
yet new aesthetic framework speaks to the larger notion of reappropriating cultural
and social ideas, that is to say, Signifyin(g), a term coined by Henry Louis Gates to
describe the imitation or repetition of a song or style with a difference or meaning.

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This regenerated sound and meaning, although applicable here, will be expanded
upon in a later argument that emphasizes issues of cultural evolution apparent
within the Quasimoto narrative. At present focus is Madlibs ability to transgress
the static identity in hip-hop tropes through multiple characters and dialogues.
Often, the trope-hop (hip-hop trope) character elaborated upon earlier
speaks directly to the listener with the constraining static subjectivity of I am or I
have (such as the many recapitulations of I am rich and I have money). The
listener remains separated from the sound due the monologue-esque narrative
that these tropes create. Although such hip-hop songs often include multiple MCs
on the microphone - sometimes in dialogue - they remain static by reinforcing the
trope narrative through the music or lyrics. Identity in mainstream hip-hop at the
turn of the millennium ultimately became a social cipher, a Mr. Zero character. This
characters only importance came through those mediating and promoting its own
acceptance within a socially engineered environment. Madlibs unseen Quasimoto
intentionally takes on the trope of Mr. Zero through the creation of a new bad
character that critiques the broader centralization of black male identity through
the presence of multiple identities and dialogues.
Quasimotos characteristic helium-pitched voice is a direct departure from
even the most basic tropes in hip-hop due to its genderless and childlike sonic
qualities. To technically attain this voice, Madlib slows his recorder down, raps
slowly then speeds the recording up drastically, thus creating the high pitch voice of
Quasimoto. This voice critiques hypermasculine forms of black male identity
through its ambiguity towards gender and age and highlights a new subjectivity that

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is articulated through the electro-technological mediation and amplification of the
human voices magic (Rollefson, 88). Often, this voice is either foregrounded in
combination with Madlibs, or vice versa, Madlibs voice is foregrounded in
combination with Quasimotos (see: Come On Feet, Good Morning Sunshine (2000),
and Real Eyes (2000), among others). The overlaid dialogue in the previously
discussed Return Of The Loop Digga contains three personalities, all voiced by
Madlib: Madlib himself, Quasimoto, and the record store owner. In Real Eyes,
Quasimoto and Madlib challenge the static gangsta identity explicitly through the
lyrics (a transcription is available in Appendix D) and intricately through the
presence of both personas throughout the song. In Astronaut there is a constant
recapitulation of the lyrics in Melvin Van Peebles You Aint No Astronaut by
Quasimoto, Madlib, and the Melvin Van Peebles song itself. These vocal tones are
overlaid to the point where the listener is unsure who is speaking and the line
between individuals becomes blurred.
Madlib, like Kool Keith before him (the rapper behind such alter egos as Dr.
Octagon, Dr. Dooom, and Black Elvis, among others), simultaneously draws upon
the signifying power of stable identities and subverts those identities by
highlighting their caricature status (Rollefson, 89). The back and forth - and often
combination - of Madlib, Quasimoto, and Melvin Van Peebles lines pluralizes their
individual identity and produces an air of confusion for the listener as to who says
what. This confusion is achieved through the creation of a space of dynamic
subjectivity, whereby the manipulation and layering of Madlibs voice proliferates
the alter ego. This proliferation of the alter ego, or I be challenges the

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aforementioned static subjectivity of I am by asserting that I is a crowd, a
multitude of identities that evades the labeling associated with remaining static
(Eshun, 27). Although these dynamic characteristics of identity act as a departure
from hip-hop tropes, Quasimoto is nonetheless considered a bad character.
He laments that this label is inescapable in the opening two songs of The
Unseen, Welcome To Violence and Bad Character. Welcome To Violence, the opening
track, is a sampled version of the intro to the 1965 exploitation film Faster, Pussycat!
Kill! Kill! The ominous opening sound gives way to a rolling baseline over a vocal
introduction to the labeling of violence, the word and the act. Within the original
context of the movie, the vocals are inscribing violence and its favorite mantelsex
to this dangerously evil creationwomen. Within the context of The Unseen,
however, the recapitulation of the sample can be seen as inscribing this violence to
black males:
while violence cloaks itself in a plethora of disguises,
Its favorite mantel still remains sex (sex, sex)
Violence devours all it touches, its veracious appetite rarely fulfilled. Yet
violence doesnt only destroy, it creates and molds as well (molds as well)
But a word of caution, handle with care-don't drop your guard,
This rapacious new breed prowls both alone and in packs...
Who are they? (Who are they?)
- Welcome to Violence (2000)

Madlib highlights the inherent tropes in hip-hop, violence, and its obsession
with the hypermasculine form, sex. The subsequent descriptions of violence can
be applied to characteristics of the static black male identity at the turn of the
millennium: its veracious appetite for violence; it prowls both alone and in packs
is paralleled to gangs and gang warfare; and the word of caution to the listener to

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not drop [their] guard plays upon the white fear of black males instilled and
expounded in mainstream media.
While Welcome To Violence introduces the listener to the violent trope
world of hip-hop at the time, Bad Character introduces the listener to the individual
bad character label that is applied to Quasimoto. He repeats in the songs chorus,
Im labeled as a bad character/No matter what I do Im labeled as a bad character.
The labeling of any object takes away from its complexity and limits its capacity to
be unique, ultimately making the subject static. Quasimoto, and thus Madlib,
challenge that label with the songs first and last lines: Guess whos the new bad
character in town; and a Melvin Van Peebles sample: Im the new bad char-ac-ter,
respectively. Madlibs creation of this new bad character within the pre-existent
labeled framework of trope-hop parallels Sun Ra creation of my-story against the
repetition of his-story in his 1980 jazz film A Joyful Noise, where he argues:
My story is different from his-story
My story is not part of history
Because history, repeats itself
But my story is endless
It never repeats itself
Why should it?
Nature never repeats itself
Why should I repeat myself?

(Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980)

Similar to Sun Ra, Madlib challenges the pre-existent framework surrounding

black identity through the creation of a dynamically subjective space by which they
are both able to challenge and subsequently collapse the linearity of a
manufactured black past and equally overwritten white future (Rollefson, 94).

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Bad Character abruptly ends and the next song, Microphone Mathematics,
begins with an unknown voice thats glad you all [the listener] made it to my
show/Hope you enjoy it It is difficult to distinguish whether the voice is a vocal
sample or yet another manipulated voice character of Madlib. The show that is
introduced to the listener is the rest of The Unseen. Madlib quotes and samples a
line from De La Souls The Bizness within the hook of the song: you try keepin it
real/(yet you should try keepin it right). Both De La Soul and Madlib are
critiquing the constant need in trope-hop to keep it real, that is to say confined to
the static, and instead argue the need to keep it right, or truly authentic, unique,
and complex. Although the song comes third in the album, the first two songs:
Welcome to Violence and Bad Character work to introduce the listener to the static
world and then identity that Quasimoto subsequently challenges throughout the
rest of the album.
The centralized, commoditized masculine form described previously is not
strictly limited to the Hip-Hop genre; it has reappeared throughout 20th century
musical genres including jazz, blues, and rock. The most obvious example occurs in
rock at the turn of the 1960s, a genre touted as authentic forms of rebellion,
freedom, technical musicianship and uniqueness (Stevenson, 29). Rocks macho
man was, as Stevenson writes, the self-indulgence of the masculine playboy, a
lifestyle filled with drugs, alcohol, and excess (Stevenson, 10). Throughout genres
there was an interpellation to perform under the guise of commoditized male forms.
This constant promotion of a static male figure combined with the erosion of
diversity within a musical style forms a vacuum that allows for the creation of

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musical spaces outside that of the expected male character. David Bowies creation
of the Ziggy Stardust persona epitomizes this experimentation of masculine forms
with regard to rock, as it was a brash challenge to the core beliefs of centralized rock.
This experimentation of the masculine also occurred within the hip-hop genre in the
mid-to-late 1990s. Here, Madlibs conception of the Quasimoto persona created a
musical space outside the static framework of hip-hop tropes which allowed for him
to enter a creative space of dynamic subjectivity where the application of multiple
identities and an almost constant dialogue help to critique the linear repetition of
the static black male identity.

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Identity is not defined by experience, but

conceived of as a task

Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended
- Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974)

We strive to create some way out other shit

- Quasimoto
Return Of The Loop Digga (2000)

Madlibs capacity to transgress static subjectivity through multiple identities -
in conjunction with his reappropriation of cultural modes of thought - creates an
alternative space of dynamic creation that allows Quasimoto, and thus Madlib, to
collapse the conception of the linear progression of time. Madlibs use of dynamic
subjectivity acknowledges that he is not tied down to one identity, and thus, the
creation of identity is conceived of as a task - maintaining an element of constant
fluidity - rather than solely experienced and static to the individual or mediated

through collective forces. The diverse range and constant manipulation of identities
presented throughout The Unseen challenge the static through Signifyin(g), which
indulges in an escapist fantasythat stresses the presents connection to, and
disjunction from, the past (Demers, 70). Signifyin(g) offers listeners a range of
possible readings and associations due to the breadth of social and historical
implications attached to the samples used. The application of these samples not
only regenerates its sound but also reappropriates its meaning and context within a
new aesthetic framework. As was argued, the vocal Melvin Van Peebles sample in
Come On Feet retains its association to the flight of Sweetback within the movie, and

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recontextualizes it within a new frame, that of Quasimoto fleeing from the police.
The samples reappropriated within The Unseen allow Madlib to demonstrate
intellectual power while simultaneously obscuring the nature and extent of [his]
agency, that is to say, his ability to act independent of mediated musical and
cultural forms (Schloss, 138). Madlibs application of Signifyin(g) culturally evolved
forms of Blaxploitation and Afrofuturism within the Quasimoto persona further
emphasizes his dynamic subjectivity.
Madlibs aforementioned creation of a new bad character is essentially an
evolved form of the bad character of Blaxploitation films applied and re-examined
through a new, sample based aesthetic framework. The capacity for Madlibs
reappropriated form of the bad character to challenge hip-hop tropes emanates an
Afrofuturist philosophy, one that evinces African diaspora through a techno-culture
and science fiction lens. Afrofuturism acts as a mode of meaning-making and
historical production that navigates, counters, and ultimately transcends the history
of African American oppression while retaining a critical blackness (Rollefson, 104-
5). The Afrofuturist philosophy, which critiques the present while re-examining and
revising the past, acted as a departure from the rigid binary of blackness and
whiteness to a more dynamic form that was able to rewrite blackness in all its
complexity (Rollefson 105). Sun Ra - one of the leading pioneers of Afrofuturism -
was well known for his cosmic philosophy, which vocalized the manufactured past
of black identity as one that's not their past, its not their history (Space is the Place,
1974). Madlibs previously mentioned ability to play with the robot through the

Raouf Grissa 22
Quasimoto alien character acknowledges this manufactured past, and his adaptation
of the alien mirrors that of Afrofuturist artists Sun Ra and Kool Keith, who:
... embody their critique through the sights, sounds, and
movements of their interplanetary presences and therefore move past the
written rhetoric that has upheld the fallacies of liberty and equality
rising up above what they call liberty and what they call equality as Sun
Ra put it (Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980)
(Rollefson, 107)
Madlib, within the context of Quasimoto, samples and reappropriates
passages from Sun Ras music to exemplify Quasimotos connection to a cosmic
philosophy that critiques the linear, static approach to history and identity and
works to create that way out other shit that ultimately collapses the paradigm of
linear time. Madlibs capacity to actualize this non-linear, endless approach to
history is best seen in Shadows Of Tomorrow (2004), which, through its lyrics and
samples work to trivialize the past, present, and future through repetition,
recapitulation, and critique.
Shadows of Tomorrow is a song off the 2004 Madvillainy, a collaborative
album between producers MF DOOM and Madlib, also known as Madvillain. The
song combines the voices of Quasimoto, Madlib, and sampled Sun Ra, which strive to
create an alternative space outside the linearity of time. The song opens with an
unknown vocal sample that is quickly replaced by yet another unknown keyboard
sample that scales down into the beat. The beat is a sampled wind and string
opening to Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon (a song from the 1976 Bollywood
film Maha Chor), over a drum kit. Throughout the two verses by Quasimoto and
Madlib, respectively, the background voice of the other constantly accentuates the
foregrounded voice of the one who is presently rapping (as mentioned earlier). In
Quasimotos verse, the listener can pick out Madlibs voice in the background
panning left and right, echoing the lines of Quasimoto in whispers. Similarly in
Madlibs verse, a combined deeper and higher voice is heard echoing Madlibs lines
in whispers. The lyrical content explicitly critiques the past, present, and future, and
those who mediate its linearity:
[Verse 1: Quasimoto]

Raouf Grissa 23
Today is the shadow of tomorrow
Today is the present future of yesterday
Yesterday is the shadow of today
The darkness of the past is yesterday
And the light of the past is yesterday
Reality is today of eternity
The eternity of yesterday is dead
Yesterday is as one
The past is yesterday, today
The past is yesterday, today
While were searchin for tomorrow.

[Verse 2: Madlib]
The past is certified as a finished product
Anything which has ended is finished
That which is perfect is finished
The perfect man is no exception to the rule
The perfect man of the past is made according to the rule of the past
The rule of the past is a law of injustice and hypocrisy
The revelation of the meaning of the law is revealed through the law itself
The wisdom of the past is the light of the past
The light which is to be the wisdom of the future
The light of the future casts the shadows of tomorrow
Shadows of Tomorrow - Madvillain (2004)
(see Appendix D for full transcription)

Both verses draw upon the signifying power of repeated words such as light,
dark, today, tomorrow, and yesterday to accentuate the subsequent critique of
linear time and issues of blackness and whiteness. Within the first verse, the lines
the darkness of the past is yesterday/and the light of the past is yesterday enforce
Madlibs critique of the culturally rigid binaries of blackness and whiteness, while
other lines within the verse such as reality is today of eternity/the eternity of
yesterday is dead set up the second verses later critique of the past [as] certified
as a finished product by explaining that the rules and laws of the past (i.e. racism
and sexism) is a law of injustice and hypocrisy. Finally, the last two lines of
Madlibs verse, the light which is to be the wisdom of the future/the light of the

Raouf Grissa 24
future casts the shadows of tomorrow reflect the consequences of an overwritten
white future that ultimately puts limits upon the tomorrow of black identity. At the
end of both verses come the recapitulated vocals of a Sun Ra monologue from his
1974 film, Space is the Place which explicitly reinforces the artists departure from
the linearity of time:
The music is different here
The vibrations are different,
Not like planet Earth
Planet Earth sounds of guns, anger, and frustrations

Up there on the different stars
Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended.
We work on the other side of time.
- Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974)
(see Appendix D for full transcription)


Madlib, through Quasimoto, is able to challenge and collapse the linear
progression of time through the created space of dynamic subjectivity. This - as
mentioned before - turns I into a crowd that is able to evade the labeling
associated with static subjectivity through multiple identities and dialogues. The
delineation of I into a crowd ultimately transmutes the creation of identity from
being exclusively based on experience to one that lauds creative freedom and the
reappropriation of culturally evolved modes of thought within new aesthetic
frameworks.

Raouf Grissa 25

The Endless End

...this music is all a part of another tomorrow, another kind of language
-

Sun Ra, Space is the Place (1974)

As has been shown, Madlib is able to transgress and challenge the

manufactured character of black male identity inherent in late 1990s hip-hop

through the creation of Quasimoto. Quasimoto works to foreground the fringe
apparent within issues of identity and the creation of soundscapes, which speaks to
his larger persona as The Unseen character. Madlibs ability to create multiple
discourses between identities of his own conception (within the context of the
Quasimoto character) shows his ability to contest preconceived notions of identity
that challenge the static and create a dynamic space by which he is able to
proliferate the alter ego into a multi ego: the aforementioned I becomes a crowd.
Lastly, Madlibs ability to reappropriate cultural modes of thought through his
multi-ego allows him to transcend the linear, repetitive nature of history and write
his own history (as Sun Ra says, my-story) that is outside of mediating forces.
Madlib, is one of the most prolific artists in hip-hop today due to the breadth
and quantity of his diverse individual musical endeavors such as: Yesterdays New
Quintet (in which he plays all five characters); The Last Electro Acoustic Space Jazz
& Percussion Ensemble; The Otis Jackson Trio; DJ Rels; Ahmad Miller; and the Beat
Konducta, among others. As Madlib he released the 13-album multi-genre series
Madlib Medicine Show over the span of two years, with the first 10 being
completed in 2010. It is important to reiterate, the previously mentioned groups

Raouf Grissa 26
are just the current solo endeavors of Madlib, and all have multiple releases under
each guise. He has also acted as producer on a plethora of albums within a diverse
range of genres including jazz, funk, samba, and most recently, rock. Madlibs
approach to identity highlights the importance of reinvention and self-definition
that is characteristic within hip-hop forms that are not corporately mediated and
are a result of the artists pure creativity.

Raouf Grissa 27
Works Cited:

Demers, J., 2002, Sampling as Lineage in Hip-Hop: Princeton.

-, 2003, Sampling the 1970's in Hip-Hop: Popular Music, v. 22, no. 1, p. 41-56.

Dery, M., 1994, Black to the Futurue: Interviews with Samual R. Delaney, Greg Tate,
and Tricia Rose, Flame Wars: The discourse of cyberculture: Durham, N.C.,
Duke University Press.

Eshun, K., 1998, More brilliant than the sun: Adventures in sonic fiction, London,
Quartet.

Floyd, S. A., 1991, Ring Shout!, in Caponi, ed., Signifyin(g), Sacntifyin, and Slam
Dunking, University of Massachusetts

Miller, P. D., 2006, Rhythm Science, MIT.

Rollefson, J. G., 2008, The "Robot Voodoo Power" Thesis: Afrofuturism and Anti-
Anti-Essentialism from Sun Ra to Kool Keith: Black Music Research Journal, v.
28, no. 1, p. 83-109.

Rose, T., 2008, Hip-Hop Wars: What We Talk about When We Talk about Hip-Hop -
and Why It Matters, New York, Basic Civitas.

Schloss, J. G., 2004, Making Beats: The Art of Sample-Based Hip-Hop, Middletown, CT,
Wesleyan.

Stevenson, N., 2006, David Bowie: Fame, Sound and Vision, Polity press.

Raouf Grissa 28

Appendix A
Songs:
Welcome to Violence Quasimoto (2000)

Intro/Run Pussy Cat Bert Shefter, Igo Kantor, and Paul Sawtell (1965)
@ 0:00

Bad Character Quasimoto (2000)

Im a Bad Character Melvin Van Peebles (1972) @ 0:14 and 1:45

Complete Communion Don Cherry (1965) @ 0:20

The Bizness De La Soul (1996) @ 0:17 (and throughout)

Microphone Mathematics Quasimoto (2000)

Goodmorning Sunshine Quasimoto (2000)

Back in the Country Hurricane Smith (1972) @ 0:17 (and throughout)

Unfinished Melody Augustus Pablo (1978) @ 0:00
Heh Heh (Chuckle) Good Morning Sunshine Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @
0:13 (and throughout)
Wafer Scale Integration Prince Jammy (1986) @ 0:14 (and throughout)

Return Of The Loop Digga Quasimoto (2000)

Oneness of Juju African Rhythms (1975) @ 0:03

Fragments of Fear Sight and Sound (1971) @ 0:05
On The Move The Impressions (1974) @ 1:08
Tidal Wave Ronnie Laws (1975) @ 1:18
Cussin, Cryin and Carryin On Ike and Tina Turner (1969) @ 1:28
Stockyard Galt MacDermot (1970) @ 1:32
Darkuman Junction Sons and Daughters of Lite @ 1:38
North, East, South, West Kool and the Gang (1973) @ 1:58
Holy Are You The Electric Prunes (1968) @ 2:02
A Divine Image David Axelrod (1969) @ 2:58
Supermarket Blues Eugene McDaniels (1971) @ 3:23

Real Eyes Quasimoto (2000)

Canibus Freestyle - Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 0:00

Accadde a Bali Arawak (1970) @ 0:06 (and throughout)
I Found a Way Out Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:07
I Know I Can Handle It Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:10
Bill Talks About Pushers Bill Cosby (1971) @ 0:16

GangStarr Freestyle Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 1:17
Mobb Deep Freestyle Funkmaster Flex (1998) @ 2:14
My Flows is Tight Lord Digga (1998) @ 2:22
High as Apple Pie Slice II Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm
Band (1970) @ 3:04

Raouf Grissa 29

Come on Feet Quasimoto (2000)

Fool Yourself Little Feat (1973) @ 0:00

Le Bracelet Alain Goraguer (1973) @ 0:22
Maquillage De Tiwa Alain Goraguer (1973) @ 0:22
Come On Feet, Do Your Thing Earth Wind & Fire and Melvin Van Peebles
(1971) @ 0:00 (and throughout)

Put A Curse On You Quasimoto (2000)

Put a Curse on You Melvin Van Peebles (1971) @ 0:49 (and throughout)

Green Power Quasimoto (2000)

Khidja Mandrill (1974) @ 0:26 (and throughout)

Manhattan George Russell (1959) @ 2:46
Inner Space Bobby Lyle (1978) @ 0:02
Salamaggis Birthday Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @ 0:32
Three Boxes of Longs Please Melvin Van Peebles (1974) @ 1:58 and 2:25
Itsoweezee (HOT) De La Soul (1996) @ 0:05

Phony Game Quasimoto (2000)

Where Do I Go? Dave Wintour and Pat Whitmore (1968) @ 0:23 (and
throughout)
The Phoney Game Melvin Van Peebles (1972) @ 0:08

Astronaut Quasimoto (2002)

La Morte Accarezza a Mezzanotte Gianni Ferrio (1973) @ 0:00

Return From The Ashes Theme John Dankworth (1965) @ 0:20
Space is the Place (Live) Sun Ra (1973) @ 2:50
You Aint No Astronaut Melvin Van Peebles (1974)

Shadows of Tomorrow Madvillain feat. Quasimoto (2004)

Hindu Hoon Main Na Musalman Hoon R.D. Burman (1976) @ 0:11 (and
throughout)
Space is the Place (film) Sun Ra (1974)

Albums:

Buhloone Mindstate De La Soul (1993)

Stakes is High De La Soul (1996)
The Unseen Quasimoto (2000)
Astronaut EP Quasimoto (2002)
Madvillainy Madvillain (2004)

Raouf Grissa 30

Appendix B

(title, year, director)

Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! 1965, Russ Meyer
La Plante Sauvage, 1973, Ren Laloux
Space is the Place, 1974, John Coney
Sun Ra: A Joyful Noise, 1980, Robert Mugge
Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song, 1971, Melvin Van Peebles

Appendix C

Copyright Argos Films 1973

Copyright Stones Throw 2013

Raouf Grissa 31

Appendix D

Real Eyes Quasimoto (2000)

(My words burn through your exterior)
(They eat away at your interior Im superior

Youre talking loud but saying nothing for the dollars
You better off quitting, start working blue collar
Lord quas up in the place slapping out yall phonies
Yall niggas is played like pimp sessions with tenderonis
When yall suckers gonna learn how this rap shit goes
I hate it when the fake nigga try to doze
Rap about his clothes and fakes ass stories and hoes
Or how he shot up his rival foes
Like I aint heard that story befo
I had it up to here with the black on black
Cause that shit is worse than a klan attack
Some niggas brain lack
Common sense, common knowledge and confidence
We trying to put the stop to your wack incompetence

Once we come through aint no stopping this (x2)
I roll through like Rahsaan Roland Kirk
So niggas better be alert when I insert
You better

(Real eyes)
(You better realize)
(Aint tolerating blatant disrespect for this artform)
(You disobeyed the laws, got no cause to kill for)

Yall dummies should have learned after Self Destruction
Sucking negativity like a human suction
Quasimoto crew bring the eruption
So whats up when, we release the verbal dumping
Yall talking loud plus yall saying nothing
Youre trying to wild out like David Ruffin
Oh, them some niggas let the money control the soul
And flip their goals, and end up in holes
Some niggas is using this artform like jazz music
It dont matter to some rappers, they just want to make the money
Try to clock figures, we trying to climb ladders
You talking about pulling triggers, talking bout your life dont matter
But we roll through see were Quasimoto auxiliary

Raouf Grissa 32
Lord Quas, father of invention, you mention we
The Beat Konducta hit you like high consciousness
Niggas feeling envy when they be watching us

(So what the deal is dude think you got a little confused)
(Real eyes)
(You better realize)
(Tired of niggas flopping, they aint hip they just hopping)
(From one style to the next)
(Niggas want checks but need to check themselves)
(It happened for the love of the game)

Shadows of Tomorrow Madvillainy (2004)

Today is the shadow of tomorrow
Today is the present future of yesterday
Yesterday is the shadow of today
The darkness of the past is yesterday
And the light of the past is yesterday
The days of yesterday are all numbered in sum
In the world once
Because once upon a time there was a yesterday
Yesterday belongs to the dead
Because the dead belongs to the past
The past is yesterday
Today is the preview of tomorrow but for me
Only for my better and happier point of view
My point of view is the thought of a better or try
Reality is today of eternity
The eternity of yesterday is dead
Yesterday is as one
The eternity of one is the eternity of the past
The past is once upon a time
Once upon a time is past
The past is yesterday, today
The past is yesterday, today
While were searchin for tomorrow
(The music is different here
The vibrations are different,
Not like planet Earth.
Planet Earth sounds of guns, anger, and frustrations.
There was no one to talk to on planet earth who would understand
So we set up a colony here)

The light of the past is the light which was

Raouf Grissa 33
The wisdom of the past is the light of the past
The light of the future is the light which is to be
The wisdom of the future is the light of the future see
Yesterday belongs to the dead
Tomorrow belongs to the living
The past is certified as a finished product
Anything which has ended is finished
That which is perfect is finished
The perfect man is no exception to the rule
The perfect man of the past is made according to the rule of the past
The rule of the past is a law of injustice and hypocrisy
The revelation of the meaning of the law is revealed through the law itself
The wisdom of the past is the light of the past
The light which is to be the wisdom of the future
The light of the future casts the shadows of tomorrow
(Check the vibrations
For the better of course)
Sun Ra
Sun Ra
Lord Quas
Madlib
(Up on the different stars,
That's where the [indistinguishable] of destiny would come in
Equation wise, the first thing to do is to consider time as officially ended
We work on the other side of time)